uring a recent trip to Madrid, Spain, to attend the Salon del Gourmet, foodie friends invited me to one of the top new tapas restaurants in the city: Estado Puro. As they started to give me directions I realized it was right across the street from my hotel, the Madrid Ritz. What a great location that turned out to be! I was on a park-like boulevard next door to the Prado Museum, 2 blocks from a huge public park that stretched down to the nearby train station, with the architectural and culinary rich old town just up the street behind the restaurant. I was at the culinary heart of Madrid and didn’t even know it!

The restaurant Estado Puro is subtitled Los Tapas de Poco Roncero (part of the NH World) and is the domain of Chef Roncero, an alumni of Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame. With such a legendary pedigree I knew I was in for a treat.

Madrid’s first gastropub, Estado Puro has outside and inside seating, with higher prices outside. Sitting at a table overlooking the spectacular fountain in the center of the round-about was our plan, (and worth it!) but with none available we opted for an indoor seat. I’m glad we did. The décor is amazing. The traditional Spanish hair comb worn by the woman in the mural on one wall is replicated by the hundreds on the ceiling. It becomes an overlapping arched screen that subdues the lighting and casts intricate shadows on the diners below.

Looking across the restaurant at the mural (she’s obviously upset with her suitor - she’s pouring his beer on the table!)

That, the aroma wafting in from the kitchen and the artfully plated food being delivered to other tables told us we were in for a unique culinary experience.

Until my food arrived my fun-loving friends joked that I ordered the beer and sandwich combo, but nothing is pedestrian in Chef Roncero’s eatery. The beer was conventional enough, but I’d never seen a “sandwich” delivered standing upright before! It was delicious, and impossible to put down.

Flavor, novelty and style – that’s what to expect at Estado Puro.

Iron and glass Mercado de San Miguel, off Plaza Mayor.

We left there in search of more plebian fare up the hill, into the older section of the city, and found ourselves at the egalitarian Mercado de San Miguel. It was a beautiful old iron building, once a traditional neighborhood market, converted in 2008 into a collection of 30+ tapas stalls and bars - all under one roof. Imagine the standard cheese, fish or meat counter in any market selling plates of the gorgeous food on display and you have Mercado de San Miguel.

Various (ham, cod, shrimp) croquets to choose from.

There were plenty of high tables to sit at or stand around, and a great variety of tapas available to fill them. We had a ball! It was a little easier on our wallets, crowded with a convivial charm, but without the intimate (and very prestigious) Estado Puro’s cache.

My friends in the crowded interior of Mercado de San Miguel.

In the heart of the city we enjoyed opposite sides of Madrid’s culinary coin. The elbow-rubbing raucous party at Mercado de San Miguel showed us the roots of the tapas tradition, and Estado Puro illustrated how such humble beginnings can be elevated to gastronomical heights. Both ends (and plenty of middle ground) can be covered in an afternoon of gastropubbing and tapas bar-hopping in Madrid.

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